I occasionally comment on various “worst food lists” that appear in
magazines and on websites. There is no shortage of bad foods to talk
about these days, and we never seem to run out of lists.

But what about the foods Americans don’t often THINK about when
inventorying their personal food choices—even though they’re eating them
every day, one little dollop after another? I’m referring to
condiments.

Condiments are usually given a free ride because, well, it’s only a
spoonful. They’re typically overlooked, or brushed off as “harmless,”
or eaten in such small quantities that their effects seem negligible.

Condiments can make bland foods taste better and good foods taste
great. But they can also turn an otherwise nutritious meal into a
metabolic nightmare, one tablespoon at a time.

Small, frequent doses of potentially harmful ingredients can be far
from benign, having a cumulative biological effect. In fact, there is
scientific evidence that more significant health effects may occur at
low doses than high, especially for hormone-disrupting chemicals.1 It’s time to stop giving condiments a free pass!

Here, I’ll review five common American condiments that made their debut in a “worst of” list on the website OneResult:2

Commercially prepared mayonnaise is indeed loaded with fats—and NOT
the kind of fats that benefit you. Most prepared mayos are primarily
GMO soybean oil, one of the most harmful oils you can eat but found extensively in processed foods.3

This type of oil, whether partially hydrogenated, organic, or made from newer soybean varieties modified in such a way as to not require hydrogenation, are
highly processed and wreak chaos in your body at the cellular level,
paving the way for problems ranging from obesity and diabetes to
reproductive disorders and heart disease.

In addition to the trans fats created from hydrogenation, the majority of soybeans grown in the US are genetically engineered and, as a result, are saturated with dangerous levels of the herbicide
glyphosate, which has been linked to a growing list of serious health
problems.

Even though you may not consider mayonnaise a sweet product, most
commercial varieties contain high fructose corn syrup or other forms of fructose,
which adds to the toxic load on your liver. If you think you can’t
live without your mayo, consider using an organic variety made with
olive oil. Or better yet, make your own mayo!

Mayonnaise is easy to make in a blender and, when made with
healthful oils and fresh, organic eggs, without the artificial
ingredients of the commercial variety, is actually good for you! If you
make your own, it won’t last as long but it will taste MUCH better,
and you just make smaller batches. Good mayo requires only a few basic
ingredients: olive oil, egg yolks, vinegar or lemon juice, mustard, and a
little sea salt. You’ll find a nice recipe at the Hungry Mouse
website.4 Here
are examples of the typical mayonnaise on the market. You will want to
steer clear of these types of products by either finding organic
alternatives, or making your own.

#2: Sour Cream

Just as with mayonnaise, sour cream can be a delicious and
nutritious adjunct to your meal or a toxic white glop—depending on what
goes into it. If you make your own cultured soured cream from quality
ingredients, it’s not going to do your body any harm and will even
provide some excellent nutrition when consumed in moderation. Saturated fats and animal fats are NOT the bane of your existence, contrary to what you’ve heard.

That said, the little tubs you find at most grocery stores are not
healthful, but unfortunately, those are what most Americans consume.
Here’s an ingredient list from a typical commercial sour cream label:5

As you can see, there are lots of fillers and preservatives and not
much in the way of REAL food. Not only that, but non-organic dairy
products often contain dangerous genetically engineered bovine growth
hormone, or rBGH.

RBGH is the largest selling dairy animal drug in America. But it is
banned in Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and in the 27 countries
of the European Union because of its risks to human health. IGF-1 in
rBGH increases your risk for breast cancer by promoting conversion of
normal breast tissue cells into cancerous ones.

Despite decades of evidence about the dangers of rBGH, the FDA still
maintains it's safe for human consumption and ignores scientific
evidence to the contrary. The only way to avoid rBGH is to look for
products labeled “rBGH-free” or “No rBGH.”

Culturing your own sour cream using lacto-fermentation culture,
starting with fresh, raw organic cream, is not difficult and has the
added benefit of giving you natural probiotics, which are so critical
for your immune system. These probiotics are all but killed off in
commercial processing, if they were ever present to begin with. High
quality Greek-style yogurt is another good alternative, which you can
also make at home using a starter culture. For more info on making your
own cultured sour cream, visit Cultures for Health6.
Here are examples of the typical sour cream on the market. You will
want to steer clear of these types of products by either finding
organic alternatives, or making your own.

#3: Ranch and Blue Cheese Dressing

If you read the ingredient list, typical processed ranch and blue
cheese dressings are unnatural concoctions bearing little resemblance to
food. Your digestive tract may not even recognize this as food, but
instead react to it like a foreign invader, to be attacked like any
other bodily threat. Consider this list of ingredients in Dean’s Ranch
Dip:

As you can see, soybeans are at the forefront, which we’ve already
discussed. And yes, monosodium glutamate is listed TWICE... and once is
bad enough!

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer hidden in thousands of foods you and your family
regularly eat, and it’s one of the worst food additives ever created.
MSG is an excitotoxin, which means it overexcites your cells to the
point of damage or death, potentially causing brain damage and
triggering learning disabilities. Common adverse effects linked to
regular MSG consumption include: obesity, eye damage, headaches,
fatigue and disorientation, depression, rapid heartbeat, tingling and
numbness.

MSG can be found in nearly all processed foods because it hides
under other names, such as flavorings, seasonings, soy protein, stocks
and broths, malt extract, carrageenan, and corn starch, to name just a
few.

Food dyes are another type of additive to watch out for. Every year, food
manufacturers pour 15 million pounds of artificial food dyes into US
foods. According to a Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
report, some of the most commonly used food dyes may be linked to
multiple forms of cancer, along with hyperactivity and behavioral
problems in children.

As of July 2010, most foods in the EU that contain artificial food
dyes come with warning labels, and the British government has also
asked that food manufacturers remove most artificial colors from foods.
In the US, however, a similar measure has not been taken.

So what’s the solution? Make your own salad dressing. That way, you
have complete control over what goes into it. You can use homemade
yogurt as a delicious base for any dressing and add in your own fresh
herbs from the garden. Once you’ve mastered mayo and sour cream, the
sky’s the limit when it comes to healthful dressings, sauces and dips.
Here are examples of the typical ranch and blue cheese dressing on the
market. You will want to steer clear of these types of products by
either finding organic alternatives, or making your own.

#4: Ketchup

If you use commercially prepared ketchup on your food, you might as
well be starting an IV of high fructose corn syrup, because that’s
primarily what glugs out of the bottle. Most bottled ketchups consist
basically of overcooked tomatoes, water, and a large bolus of sugar,
usually as some form of genetically engineered corn syrup. Many brands
also add “natural flavorings,” which are really flavor-boosting
chemicals, one being MSG. Here is a fairly typical ingredient list,
this one from Hunt’s Regular Ketchup:

Due to growing consumer concerns over the health problems of high
fructose corn syrup, ConAgra, manufacturer of Hunt’s Ketchup, removed
it from their ketchup in 2010. However, their reformulated product was
not a big hit, so they added it back in two years later. It’s all about
the bottom line!7

Just one tablespoon of commercially prepared ketchup typically
contains four grams of sugar. And many people consume much more than
one tablespoon at a time, which quickly builds up your daily sugar load.
Like ketchup, sugar (especially HFCS) is added to nearly all processed
foods, along with a lot of sodium and other flavor enhancers, and it
doesn’t take too long to exceed your maximum daily fructose limit (25 grams or less).

Ketchup is another condiment you can make in your own kitchen, which
gives you the advantage of controlling the amount and type of
sweetener, as well as the other ingredients. Homemade ketchup is much
better in every respect than anything that’s been bottled commercially.8 Or, try fresh salsa instead of ketchup. Remember, you can cut down
drastically on the amount of sugar a recipe calls for, as well as
substituting more healthful sweeteners. Honey and/or stevia, or even a
mixture of the two, are good choices.

If you are simply unable to make your own ketchup and feel you
cannot live without it, I did find one organic brand that has half the
usual amount of sugar and no HFCS. Here is the ingredient list for
Annie’s Naturals:9 Don’t assume that just because a commercial ketchup is organic, it’s low in sugar. For example, Meijer Organics Ketchup10 has four grams of sugar per tablespoon, just like most of the
non-organic brands. Here are examples of the typical ketchup on the
market. You will want to steer clear of these types of products by
either finding organic alternatives, or making your own.

#5: Barbeque Sauce and Steak Sauce

Like the rest of the condiments already discussed, steak and
barbeque sauces may contain a mélange of unsavory ingredients. For
example, take a look at the “granddaddy” of them all, A1 Steak Sauce:11

Again, you see our nemesis—the little darling of the food
industry—corn syrup (which in all likelihood is genetically engineered
corn). A1 contains two grams of sugar per tablespoon. It also contains
xanthan gum, made by fermenting corn sugar with the bacteria Xanthomonas campestris.
This gummy substance has a strange viscosity—it thickens and
stabilizes a mixture, but when shaken or poured, it behaves more like a
liquid.12 Xanthan gum is made using carbohydrates from corn, wheat, dairy, or
soy, all of which are considered allergens, so I recommend avoiding
this ingredient.

As an aside, also steer clear of pet foods that contain xanthan gum, as your pets can suffer negative health effects from it as well.

There are some low to moderate health concerns about potassium
sorbate, a preservative, which you can review in detail on the EWG
website.13 It’s best to avoid this additive, especially if you have any tendency
toward allergies. There is some evidence for reproductive system
toxicity, although much more research is needed. And caramel color,
as harmless as the name sounds, can actually conceal MSG and two other
potentially dangerous chemicals, 2-methylimidazole (2-MI) and
4-methylimidazole (4-MI), both of which have been found to promote lung,
liver, and thyroid tumors in laboratory rats and mice.

Other bottled meat sauces contain a variety of agents and dyes that
really shouldn’t be in food. For example, look at the ingredient list
for Open Pit Original BBQ Sauce—there is just about NOTHING in here you
should eat!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, make your own sauces at home! Food Network14 has a great looking recipe for a steak sauce flavored with applesauce,
raisins and garlic (leave out the corn syrup), but I’m sure you can
find other yummy recipes as well. Two Dogs in the Kitchen has even
posted a recipe for an A1 “taste-alike” you can make in your own
kitchen. Here are examples of the typical barbeque sauce and steak
sauce on the market. You will want to steer clear of these types of
products by either finding organic alternatives, or making your own.

Make Your Condiments From REAL Food

I have discussed five common condiments with health impairing
ingredient lists, but there are many more examples that can be found.
Those five should be enough to demonstrate that the majority of
commercially prepared condiments are not real food but rather a blend
of chemicals engineered to taste good, induce cravings, and make
money—but offer you nothing in terms of nutrition. They are loaded with
excess sugar (especially fructose) and salt, preservatives, dyes,
texture and flavor enhancers, and a good deal of genetically engineered
ingredients, ALL of which should be avoided whenever possible.

But the good news is, you don’t have to give up condiments altogether!

With a little kitchen wisdom and creativity, you can come up with
your own recipes that taste far better than their chemical-laden grocery
store counterparts. Provided you make your condiments from
high-quality ingredients and eat reasonable portions, they can be an
acceptable part of your overall nutrition plan, enhancing your health as well as your mealtime enjoyment.

Join Us in Your Right to Know by Getting GMOs Labeled!

While California Prop. 37 failed to pass last November by a very
narrow margin, the fight for GMO labeling is far from over. In the past
few weeks, Connecticut and Maine have passed GMO-labeling bills, and
20 other states have pending legislation to label genetically
engineered foods. So, now is the time to put the pedal to the metal and
get labeling across the country—something 64 other countries already
have.

I hope you will join us in this effort.

The field-of-play has now moved to the state of Washington, where the
people's initiative 522, "The People's Right to Know Genetically
Engineered Food Act," will require food sold in retail outlets to be
labeled if it contains genetically engineered ingredients. Please help us win this key GMO labeling battle and continue to build momentum for GMO labeling in other states bymaking a donationto the Organic Consumers Association (OCA).

Remember, as with CA Prop. 37, they need support of people like YOU
to succeed. Prop. 37 failed with a very narrow margin simply because we
didn't have the funds to counter the massive ad campaigns created by
the No on 37 camp, led by Monsanto and other major food companies.
Let's not allow Monsanto and its allies to confuse and mislead the
people of Washington and Vermont as they did in California. So please, I
urge you to get involved and help in any way you can.

No matter where you live in the United States, please donate money to these labeling efforts through the Organic Consumers Fund.
Sign up to learn more about how you can get involved by visiting Yeson522.com!
For timely updates on issues relating to these and other
labeling initiatives, please join the Organic Consumers Association on Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.
Talk to organic producers and stores and ask them to actively support the Washington initiative.